Ciel 2 (NORAD 33453) is a commercial broadcast communications satellite owned by Canadian Ciel Satellite Group. It was launched on December 10, 2008 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan by an ILS Proton-M/Breeze-M vehicle. The satellite is built by Thales Alenia Space and is based on Spacebus-4000C4 bus. It is the largest Spacebus class satellite built to date (5561 kg). Operating from 129ð West geostationary orbit position, its 32 K<sub>u</sub> band transponders will deliver high-definition and other TV services throughout North America. The satellite delivers multiple independent spot beams in K<sub>u</sub> band.
Dish Network has decided to spot beam local affiliates of major networks instead of offering them on CONUS as was previously done on Echostar 5.